[Cattitude]

I'm in the middle of a transaction from Aquabid. I just clicked the Buy Now so I didn't have to worry about bidding against anyone.

Most sellers have the list of the transhippers they deal with in their ad. If they don't, send a message to the seller and ask before bidding to make sure there will be someone available.

AS SOON AS YOU WIN THE AUCTION and pay for the fish, email the transhipper to find out when their next shipment is. Cc the email to the seller. The seller won't ship to the transhipper until it's almost time for the transhipper's next shipment. In my case my local transhipper isn't shipping until the end of May, so that's when I will get my fish that I ordered last week. :-(

 

[Cattitude]

I'm sorry. Am I missing something? Why not just buy a fish from one of the show-quality breeders who are members of this forum.

Get some pics, make a choice. Send check. Get fish. Sounds a lot simpler than all that falderall with transhippers and what-not.

Having done both I will weigh in here. There are pros and cons to both methods.

Breeders aren't that easy to find around here, at least that's been my experience. I found one breeder in Canada, in the Maritimes. Surely there must be more! I live in Ontario, the most populated province, and no breeders here??

Then when you find a breeder, do they have stock available for sale? Not always. I have also found that breeders often sell their best stock via Aquabid, so less stock is available to buy from them directly.

Overall, I had an excellent experience with the breeder I dealt with and I do plan on buying from her again (sibling females for a sorority anyone?).

Aquabid always has a vast selection of stock available. But there's the transhipper business to worry about. The site itself is remiss in that it doesn't contain an FAQ about transhipping for newbies. No price ballpark figures and no warning that some transhippers only ship once a month, or that some transhippers need to be contacted BEFORE a bid is placed!

I bought a fish from a seller who didn't even list his transhippers in his ad, and then found out AFTER paying him that the transhipper in my area isn't shipping for another month. I still have no idea how much shipping will cost but I'm starting to worry about that. I'm also worrying if I'll even get the same fish I bought, and what condition he'll be in.

I'd still buy from a local breeder again as opposed to using Aquabid and transhippers. But we really need a couple of upgrades on this board to address the above issues to our members:

- Sticky thread where breeders can list themselves and stock for sale.

- Seller review thread where members can review their experiences with sellers (both local and intenational) and transhippers

- Sticky thread with FAQ's and/or pros and cons of dealing with Aquabid and overseas sellers and transhippers

In fact it might be an idea to have a whole new section of this board for buying and selling. Just a thought. I wish I had had access to the info I've written here, BEFORE I bought from Aquabid!

 

[Cattitude]

I found it difficult to find bettas not on aquabid when I first started out. The first 6 sites I went to all said they were currently not breeding and had no immediate plans to. I found this forum and still had trouble finding bettas at that time. The classifieds here are like a running commentary and they start at beginning of thread which in many cases is over 1 yr old...then you have to dig through 20pages of "i love your fish. What a pretty boy" etc to even find updated recent area...so not user friendly!
I of course, then found aquabid thread and that's all she wrote! I've bought 12 bettas through 5 breeders from Thailand. They are all courteous, helpful, prompt in returning emails, and honest!
All the fish came healthy, with fins intact, and all were the fish from the pics.
The transhipper I work with, Linda Olson, is prompt, professional, and caring.

Even if you're a newbie, most breeders will email you the first time w/ complete price to pay them, how transhipper works, and when the next delivery dates are. One of the breeders I bought from even figured where I was and listed next delivery dates for all transhippers near my state.
In comparison, I am still waiting on pm from breeder on this forum...it has been almost 2 mos!

I'm glad you had a good experience with Aquabid. The jury is still out on my first purchase there. I had to initiate contact with the breeder and ask him the total purchase price. He responded promptly, but then I had to ask him if he even ships to Canada (my dumb, I should have asked before bidding) as he had no transhippers listed in his ad. Then I had to ask him who my transhipper is and he just said "Hung".

I had to look up "Hung" in other breeders' ads, then confirm with "Hung" that he'd be shipping my fish. I got no price estimate when I asked. Apparently he wants me to meet him in person to pick up my fish. This should make the transaction cheaper instead of shipping the fish to me - but since I don't know the going rate for transhippers I'm likely to get ripped off. I guess I will find out at the end of the month, which is apparently Hung's next shipping date.

If I had to choose between Aquabid and a breeder, I'd take a breeder any day.

 

[Cattitude]

Cat, I think you ought to cut/paste your post (complete with my lament) over to the Breeder section of the fourm. If you'd rather not, give me permission and I will.

Sounds like a great idea to me, VOG (but what do I know?). Perhaps it might be a good business opportunity for someone with import/export experience and contacts.

Done, new thread called "Buying Bettas: Breeder vs. Aquabid".

I really think this forum could benefit from a buy and sell section with the sticky threads I listed. My favourite tarantula and watch collecting forums have similar info and it's a godsend to the newbies out there. They also have strict guidelines for posts in the sellers section to prevent the clutter of "ooh it's beautiful" posts.